Look - I love good, local software. I hate paying for webshit.
That being said, you are going to struggle to compete if your main selling-point is local operation. If you're trying to target the developer audience by building UNIX-like tooling for your software service, you're eschewing a huge market to chase your least-likely customers. You will be replaced with a free version, if not end up with your tool being forked or pirated in it's entirety.
SaaS is the way it is for a reason. It's very quick to iterate on simple ideas until they're profitable, as opposed to solving hard problems and hoping people will pay for them. Just because we've ended up in a sea of webshit doesn't mean the solution is paid coreutils though - most people evaluating your product simply won't give you the time of day.
torumk•9mo ago
Thanks for taking the time to share this honest feedback! Agreed that SaaS is the way it is for a reason. Here, I'm advocating for a hybrid model, but your comment made me realize I didn't make that obvious. Updated the post. Cheers.
sydbarrett74•9mo ago
I love what you're doing. Philosophically, I'm behind it 100%. The problem: all that most customers really care about is price. They're willing to eschew all other concerns (e.g., security) if they can shave a few pennies. At the end of the day, your quest may end up being quixotic. And that's a tragedy, because local-first should have broader adoption. :(
torumk•9mo ago
Appreciate the encouragement! The plan is to take this further and double down by publishing the data format and using open standards where it makes sense. As you hinted, probably not the smartest business decision, but I strongly believe it's the right thing to do. I suppose that's the upside of being an independent company. Hopefully it works out.
sydbarrett74•9mo ago
I wish you all the success in the world and will continue to follow your progress with great interest. :)
bigyabai•9mo ago
That being said, you are going to struggle to compete if your main selling-point is local operation. If you're trying to target the developer audience by building UNIX-like tooling for your software service, you're eschewing a huge market to chase your least-likely customers. You will be replaced with a free version, if not end up with your tool being forked or pirated in it's entirety.
SaaS is the way it is for a reason. It's very quick to iterate on simple ideas until they're profitable, as opposed to solving hard problems and hoping people will pay for them. Just because we've ended up in a sea of webshit doesn't mean the solution is paid coreutils though - most people evaluating your product simply won't give you the time of day.
torumk•9mo ago